Area representatives hope economy, deficit issues covered in State of the Union

TROY - President Barack Obama will focus his State of the Union address on boosting job creation and economic growth at a time of high unemployment, underscoring the degree in which the economy could threaten his ability to pursue second-term priorities such as gun-control, immigration policy and climate change.

Obama's State of the Union marks his second high-profile speech to the nation in about three weeks, after his inaugural address Jan. 21 that opened his second term. Representative Paul Tonko (D - District 20) is hoping that Obama will use this opportunity to urge the creation of a job climate that will spur private-sector growth.

"We can create public-sector jobs in areas where it spurs innovation or responds to services required, but the big challenge is to create an environment where private-sector job growth can continue,"said Tonko. "We can do that through an investment in research and an investment in the workforce (...) through workforce development."

Since the 2008 recession, the country has had 35 consecutive months of private-sector job growth. In that time, the nation has gained nearly 6 million jobs, but has not yet reached pre-recession levels. Around 8.2 jobs were lost during the recession.

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The Congressman urged support of advanced manufacturing, clean energy and high-tech innovation jobs especially in fields or areas that do not yet exist. In the Capital District, there are several high-tech companies working on the bleeding-edge of their fields, including the chip fabrication company GlobalFoundries, who recently announced plans to add a second plant to their facility in the Luther Forest Technology Park.

In order to support these high-tech jobs, the Tonko hopes the president will call for support of workforce development, such as programs that will give the private-sector a workforce skilled in high-tech jobs. There are several such programs being fostered in the Capital District, such Hudson Valley Community College TEC-SMART campus - neighboring the GlobalFoundries facilities in Malta and supported by the company - and is aimed at educating students to enter the semiconductor manufacturing business.

"We're one of the hottest real-estate hubs in the nation for clean-energy, high-tech job-growth," said Tonko.

During a meeting with House Democrats Thursday, the president echoed some of the issues the Gibson emphasized. Obama said he would call for boosting clean-energy production and improvements in education. He also said he is interested in reducing the deficit in ways that will not burden the middle-class, the poor or the elderly.

Representative Chris Gibson (R - District 19) said it would be ideal if the Obama showed support for the deficit-reduction plan of the Simpson-Boules Commission. That plan would, ostensibly, get the budget under control by bringing the deficit to a point where, in ten years, it would be lower than the interest payments on the debt and so create a balanced budget in the years that followed.

"I want to hear the president stand up and embrace that framework to provide leadership so that we can resolve this budget impasse that we're at," said Gibson. "It's not perfect, but it's a starting point towards a major agreement."

That budget, which was pro-growth and fiscally responsible, said Gibson, was one that could achieve strong bipartisan support.

While Congress is past the fiscal cliff, one half of the circumstances that created that dire situation - across-the-board spending cuts, known as the sequester - will need to be addressed before early March, when they are due to go into effect.

"It seems that every three to six months we have a major budget crises down in Washington, D.C."

If there had been more support for the plan, or its more recent iterations, there never would have been a fiscal cliff, explained Gibson.

Both Congressman will be bringing guests to the State of the Union. Gibson will be bringing an active duty military fellow. Tonko, meanwhile, will be hosting Schenectady native Jennifer Smith, an employee at GE Water and Power who coordinates the Future City competition in the region. In the contest, sixth through eighth graders to use math, science and engineering skills to first model their visions for future cities and then build models of those cities. In late January, the Academy of Holy Names' entry won in the Capital District, and they will be moving onto the National Competition in Washington D.C. in mid-February.